About Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda's Priorities

Councilmember Mosqueda’s commitment to working families includes ensuring all workers have fair access to affordable housing. This includes her support and collaboration with community and colleagues on the Mandatory Housing Affordability legislation, the Accessory Dwelling Unit legislation, and efforts to maximize production and preservation of permanently affordable housing. In her first six months, she led on legislation placing a moratorium on the use of rental bidding platforms to bid rents in Seattle, pending review of their intersections with our Fair Housing laws, and allowing the Office of Housing to procure properties to future affordable housing development, ensuring we can be nimble in the current market.

Councilmember Mosqueda is committed to creating more workforce housing – for workers across the income spectrum – and determined to increase affordable housing options for our low and middle income families in Seattle.

Health

Councilmember Mosqueda remains committed to maintaining affordable health coverage for our City’s residents. As a member of the Board of Health that oversees Public Health Seattle/King County, and as chair of the committee covers health for the City, she has been engaging in conversation with key stakeholders who can help protect access to a full range of reproductive care services, access to care for low-income and immigrant communities, and maintaining critical services for our LGBTQ community. She continues to drive harm-reduction public health policy solutions to help address the opioid and addition crisis far too many Seattle families are dealing with. Additionally, Councilmember Mosqueda understands that our current homelessness crisis is a public health emergency. By partnering with community health clinics and public health centers, as well as local private providers she plans on maintaining and expanding access to care and increasing access to mental health and substance abuse treatment services for all in our community.

Councilmember Mosqueda knows that in order to be healthy, families need both health insurance and housing and economic stability and is thus approaching all issues through a health lens.

Energy

Councilmember Mosqueda believes we must meet our energy and environmental conservation goals, ensuring our city remains a healthy place for generations to come. Arm-in-arm with advocates for green buildings, she advanced legislation that allows greater flexibility in contracts for green energy with City Light, and implementation of Energy Efficiency as a Service to more building retrofits in Seattle, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy efficiency for tenants.

Councilmember Mosqueda is advancing policies to ensure good living wage jobs are created in the green energy economy, promoting fiscally sound policies and oversight so that the public utility can continue to be solvent, and listening to community and industry experts about what we can do better in our rapidly growing city.

Workers’ Rights

Councilmember Mosqueda brings a decade of experience working with labor unions and working families to City Council. As an elected, Councilmember Mosqueda is focusing on highlighting the needs of our most vulnerable working communities, including women, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities and the LGBTQ community. In council, Councilmember Mosqueda is focusing on expanding labor standards and protections to workers historically left out, ensuring that we continue to lead the nation on labor policies that promote unions and middle class jobs, and improving education and enforcement to help level the playing field for good employers who are trying to do the right thing by their workers.

Councilmember Mosqueda knows that we all do better when workers do better – we see improved health outcomes, greater productivity, greater economic stability and shared prosperity. She will continue to be a champion for working families, union values and small businesses.

Her work on the IDT is informed by her lived experiences and the experiences of many of her family members and friends. Sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and intimidation are experienced at high rates among immigrants, workers of color and women. Councilmember Mosqueda is working to ensure the City takes a strong stand against sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace and that the City’s policies create more accountability and transparency.

In her role at the City, Councilmember Mosqueda led efforts to include funding in the City’s education levy for a childcare mentorship program, helping to ensure that we have affordable childcare options for our families while maintaining and expanding a skilled, well-trained and diverse workforce.

Let’s Make Policy Together!

Have ideas on how we make policy change in the City? Click here to submit your suggestions or stay up to date on our work, or email me at Teresa.Mosqueda@seattle.gov.

2018 Accomplishments

Collaborating with you, we’ve been able to advance these policy changes in 2018 and improve the lives of Seattlites for years to come. We look forward to working with you in 2019!

- Team Teresa

Moratorium on Rent Bidding

Prevented eBay-like escalation on rental units

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Banned Sub-Minimum Wages

Passed a law ending the practice of underpaying people with disabilities

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Green Jobs & Buildings

Protected workers’ rights & the environment as buildings are updated

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Frontloaded Affordable Housing Funds

More investment for homes, and sooner, from the Convention Center project

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Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

First city to pass wage & safety protections for nannies, house cleaners & caretakers

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Creating Safe SCL Workplaces

Insisted on workplace safety & culture changes in SCL strategic plan

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Flexibility for Affordable Housing

Can now buy and hold land to create affordable housing while organizing building funds

“ALEGRA” Bike Network!

Protected Your Privacy

Kept your info private with the rollout of City Light’s new smart meters

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Prioritized Surplus Land for Housing

Mandated public land be used for the public good / housing

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Created City Ombud Office

Worked with unions & Silence Breakers to create an independent office to address harassment

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City Light CEO Confirmation

Ran the committee to vet a new CEO with enviros, industry and workers

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Budget Wins

In addition, we championed key investments in this year’s budget to advance investments in childcare, health services, shelter workers, restorative justice, and more equitable investments in housing and food services across Seattle in the year ahead, such as:

Supporting a Strong Economy

Investing in capital to launch a childcare facility in a city-owned downtown building.

Providing a 2 percent inflationary increase for shelter-workers working for provider agencies who help support our homeless populations get counseling, find housing and access the services and supports they need.

Building Healthy Communities

Preparing for and preventing communicable disease outbreaks by investing in partnerships with regional partners.

Funding for an air and noise pollution study for Beacon Hill to support residents impacted by SeaTac flight plan changes.

Examining immediate revenue through bonds to build equitable development projects that include housing now, rather than waiting for costs to increase

A City That Works for All

Ensuring the City has a full, fair and accurate 2020 Census count by adding an FTE to prepare for community, business and governmental coordination to promote federal investments in the City and representation at the national level.

Committed to analyzing racial equity and identifying more equitable growth strategies of our development plans prior to the Comprehensive Plan design in the New Year.

Examining the use of consultant contracts, working to identify cost-savings to re-invest in communities across Seattle.

Safe Streets for Our City

Directed SDOT to identify funding gaps - and ways to fill them - for the Thomas Street Greenway in advance of Key Arena’s renovations being completed

Moratorium on Rent Bidding

Working together with students at UW we put a moratorium on rent bidding in Seattle. This allows Seattle to get ahead of this new technology before it can cause irreparable harm to fair access to housing in Seattle. Using recommendations provided by input the Office of Housing and the community, we’ll establish new regulations in 2019 to ensure equitable access to housing for students and others in Seattle.

Banned Sub-Minimum Wages

Rooted in the belief that all workers deserve respect, dignity and nothing less than a minimum wage, we passed legislation that ended the practice of paying workers with disabilities a subminimum wage.

Green Jobs & Buildings

Working with Labor and Council Colleagues, we successfully enhanced legislation to invest in energy efficiency as a service to retrofit buildings for greater energy efficiency by adding in guidelines for labor protections, ensuring your ratepayer dollars are invested in good jobs alongside energy conservation .

Frontloaded Affordable Housing Funds

Following negotiations with all parties, I introduced an amendment to increase the contribution of affordable housing dollars generated from the WA State Convention Center Expansion to $30 million, and to have all of that investment made 2018 (along with front-loading investments in safe-streets around the expanded Convention Center ).

Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

We partnered with workers to craft a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, extending wage and workplace safety protections to nannies, house cleaners, and other domestic workers who have historically been left out of minimum standards. Working with the new Domestic Workers Standards Board, we will continue efforts to expand access to paid time off, affordable benefits, and additional standards to lift workers who care for our elders, our kiddos, and our homes.

Creating Safe SCL Workplaces

Prior to my election, City Light employees known as the Silence Breakers came forward with their stories of workplace harassment. After being sworn into office I worked swiftly to address the concerns of these brave women to ensure that City Light improves worker experience, and can work free from harassment and retaliation for coming forward. Putting words into action, my office successfully demanded that the Utility include steps to improve workplace culture and safety as part of their six-year Strategic Plan.

Flexibility for Affordable Housing

Recognizing an impediment for acquiring properties that may be suitable for affordable homes, we changed the regulations, ensuring Office of Housing can acquire properties, and hold them pending identification of an affordable housing developer, meaning more properties slated for market-rate development can be held to build affordable homes for low-income households .

“ALEGRA” Bike Network!

Rejecting false arguments that safe streets benefit only white communities, I introduced a new way to prioritize community investments for mobility - all Ages, Languages, Ethnicities, Genders, Races, and Abilities. ALEGRA, Spanish for “happy,” better identifies what we know - when communities have access to safe routes, those routes are utilized.

Protected Your Privacy

In collaboration with advocates and the ACLU, we enacted clear privacy protections for new Advanced Metering Infrastructure, ensuring your personal information and electricity use is kept private .

Prioritized Surplus Land for Housing

Seattle led in Washington, being the first to adopt express state authority to use surplus City Light property at below-market value for affordable housing, stretching taxpayer investments in affordable homes for low-income families further. Doubling down, I worked with community and Council colleagues to adopt a broader set of policies that not only prioritize affordable home production for surplus lands, but roots those developments in communities most impacted by displacement. By updating our dispositions policies we also prioritized investments of revenue from any sales to help build more affordable homes, we have set the stage for greater equity in housing access, and equity in development across Seattle .

Created City Ombud Office

Following ongoing reports of workplace harassment, and intimidation, my office fought for an Office of the Employee Ombud, an advocate and resource for workers at the City. Enhancing legislation submitted by the Mayor, we successfully added greater independence and transparency than what was offered in the creation of this office, ensuring that it will truly be a place where all workers can go without fear of reprisals from any department or political branch.

City Light CEO Confirmation

Working with community members advocating for labor protections, green energy, environmental stewardship, and those seeking to build a Utility of the Future, we looked in-depth into the background of the new City Light CEO, and her vision for the future, which ultimately led to unanimous support for her appointment from colleagues .

Fair and Affordable Housing

Councilmember Mosqueda has prioritized fair access to affordable housing in her first term. This includes efforts to ensure affirmatively fair housing principles are applied. Sustainable affordable housing is vital to meaningfully address homelessness, and building healthy communities. With transit-oriented development, Councilmember Mosqueda sees the opportunity to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, while increases access to opportunity. She is committed to more community-based development – much like Plaza Roberto Maestes – bringing community space, plazas and parks, health care facilities, and affordable child care to where people are, helping build thriving, healthy communities. Specific priorities for 2018-2019 include:

Reforming disposition policies, including implementing SHB 2382, to prioritize housing production, or preservation for future production, to meet affordable housing needs on publicly owned surplus and under-utilized non-park land in Seattle (decreasing the cost of affordable housing production by 10-15%).

Increasing production capacity within 10 minutes of high-capacity transit corridors, and implementing Mandatory Housing Affordability throughout Seattle, meeting the housing needs of all income levels, with an emphasis on community-oriented development in high-displacement risk neighborhoods, right-of-return policies, and other opportunities to build equity within historically neglected communities.

Supporting expansion of access to production and conversion of Accessory Dwelling Units, along with programmatic investments to ensure deep affordability, giving households an option to participate directly in affordable housing needs, and creating more housing options in even more parts of our city.

Implement Low-Density Family Zoning, allowing more housing types in areas where only detached-single-family housing is allowed, such as duplexes, triplexes, row houses, and stacked flats, creating new homeownership and land-trust opportunities in every neighborhood in Seattle.

Continue to support efforts to increase investments to scale to produce and preserve affordable housing for 0-30% Area Median Income (AMI) households, as well as mixed-income communities through targeted investments for 30-60% AMI households, strengthening of the Multi-Family Tax Exemption, and implementation of a Preservation Tax Exemption, to ensure 60-80% AMI households have options in our city.

Upcoming Legislation

FAS Disposition Policy Updates – prioritizing any surplus properties for production of affordable housing, at the lowest-cost legally allowed, with secondary consideration for park and green space need. For properties that cannot be developed now, require retention of surplus properties pending resources available to develop affordable housing, or, in gap areas, parks and green spaces. In the event the property does not fall into any such category, or where it makes most sense to dispose of at fair market value, set aside a minimum amount of revenue received to fund production and preservation of affordable housing. Implement a two-year review cycle of disposition policies.

SCL Disposition Policy Updates – Implementing SHB 2382, directing Seattle City Light to dispose of surplus properties, as defined by statute, at the lowest price possible, down to original cost, when used for purposes of production of affordable housing. For properties that cannot be developed now, transfer of properties to Office of Housing for future development as affordable housing.

Past Successes

CB 119198; Placing a moratorium on utilization of online platforms for the purposes of rent bidding, allowing the city an opportunity to study potential impacts and future regulatory framework based on intersection with Fair Housing Laws in Seattle.

CB 119236; Allowing Office of Housing to procure properties that are ideal for production of affordable housing to hold pending resource availability to develop. This legislation authorizes OH to execute a Purchase and Sale Agreement; any final purchases require council approval pursuant to the Charter.